Deadly Dreams
by AODtrunks lover
Summary: someone, or something, is stalking Gohan and his friends. Gohan must find a way to stop it, before all of his friends and himself fall victim to it's deadly games.
1. Deadly Dreams

Gohan's glazed eyes stared into the mirror of his bathroom. The dark circles under his eyes were becoming even more pronounced with all the sleep he had skipped out on. He wearily rubbed his eyes.  
It had been a full week without sufficient sleep.

Of course Gohan had tried to sleep, he'd tried the first few nights...now he just accepted that he would have to never sleep again.  
He shuddered at the last part of his thought.

Staggering back to his room, he scooped a full tablespoon full of instant coffee into his mouth and chased it with a can of 'Mountain Dew'. He grimaced past the initial first taste, reminding himself that it would keep him awake for at least another five minutes. he had been surviving on that sludge for the past day-and-a-half, finding it was perking him up.  
He shook his head.

The average human could live ten days without sleep, Gohan had read that somewhere. He also read that eleven days without sleep led to severe psychosis,and losing twelve nights of sleep meant that the human would expire. Of course Gohan was no ordinary human teenager, but he couldn't help wonder when the insanity and death came for sleep-deprivation saiyan.

A hand rested on his shoulder, causing Gohan to leap, literally, several feet into the air.  
It was his mother, Chi-chi.

"Gohan, sweetie, you have **got** to get some rest. Look at you, you're exhausted." She cooed lovingly. Gohan had fought with her tooth and nail, trying to convince her that he wasn't tired, or that he had to stay up late to finish a project, or something to that matter. Now that the issue was front and center in his mother's mind, he knew she would have to have her way.  
Chi-chi continued to speak soothingly to him as she escorted him over to the bed. As much as Gohan hated to admit it, the bed look incredibly inviting at the momment, and he was finding it hard to stick to his vow to never sleep again. He gave in as his mother asked and slipped below the sheets.  
It wasn't long before his fatigued body forced him to sleep.

Gohan's eyes shot wide awake, and his breathing quickened.  
He was now in his own dream.  
He stood on an empty street, in front of a house with the address 1428.  
"Shit! I didn't mean to really fall asleep. Fuck!" He cussed ina crushed whisper to himself. He ran a hand through his hair. Trying to fathom a way to wake himself up before...

That's when he heard it. It was someone crying. More precisely, to his ears it sounded like a smallgirl crying. His compassion overtook his common sense.  
"Hello?" He said shakily. There was no answer, but the crying remained the same, evenan extra whimper or two was thrown in. He took a few steps forward, craning his head around to find the source of the child's cry.  
"Is anyone there?" He asked, louder this time so that the child might hear him better. He began to walk down the street, calling more for the child. He walked into the yard of one of the houses, and almost tripped over a young girl.

She wasn't that old, maybe five or six; seven at the very most. Gohan could only see her from the back, but he could tell that she had shoulder-length brown hair, and she wore a white t-shirt with jean overalls. Her shouldersheaved with her quiet sobs. Gohan's heart went out to her.  
"Hey...hey, kid. What's wrong?" It was then that the girl turned around.

Gohan's throat closed as he tried to scream, but his face betrayed a look of absolute horror. The girls eyes had been gouged out, and her throat had been slit. Gohan unconciously backed away. The child's face contorted into a sick smile, and her voice changed to that of an adult male.  
"Hello Gohan."  
Gohan turned to run, and then he ran into the source of all his nightmares; a horribly burned man in a dirty brown hat, wearing a brown and orange sweater, and a glove with five razors for fingers.

Gohan woke up screaming in a cold sweat. He swung his legs out over the side of the bed and began his ragged breathing. He carefully looked himself over. It was a rarity that he was not injured during his sleep. He shook his head; he needed something to help him stay awake.

Ordinarily, Gohan did not take any drugs of any kind. He even hated taking antibiotics. He felt weak and inept when he had to take such things, therefore he avoided them at all costs. But these were desperate times he lived in now. Desperate times called for desperate measures.

Gohan groggily rooted through the medicine cabinet of the family bathroom. He concentrated on finding something powerful, so he wouldn't have to worry about it wearing off after four shitty hours. He finally found an anti-sleep drug; not a brand name like he wanted, but something that would do.

He reached down and took a hold of the cold water faucet. He knew quickly that something was terribly, **terribly** wrong. He couldn't let go of the faucet...something was holding him to the faucet. He dropped the bottle of anti-sleeping pills and tried to pull his hand off the faucet, his panic growing larger and larger every second.  
That's when he noticed the hot water faucet.  
The hot water faucet was changing. It was becoming...a hand. A hand with five razors for fingers. The cold water faucet closed over his hand, and began turnig over his arm, exposing his wrist. Gohan's last thought was, "Oh my god! I didn't wake up."  
The gloved hand swipped at his wrist.  
His scream was what finally woke up his mother and father.

Goku broke open the door with minimal effort, only to find a dazed looking Gohan with one wrist slit wide open...and his other hand holding a double-edged razor. Gohan only looked at them, and then collapsed.


	2. Panic in the ER

Gohan cried out softly as Bulma pressed hard on his torn wrist in attempt to stop the bleeding. He could hear his mother crying in Capsule Corp.'s makeshift waiting room. His parents had honestly thought he had tried to kill himself. Hell, could he blame them; they had seen him with a straight razor in his hand.

"Hold up your arm." Bulma instructed. She had managed to wrap his wrist tight enough to effectively keep him from bleeding to death, but he still needed to keep it elevated just to be sure. Gohan did as he was told, and Bulma walked away to help her other patients.

Videl, Erasa, and Sharpener had been in CC's hospitol before he had even arrived. Videl had severe burns up and down her entire body, Erasa had been slashed up like a piece of meat, and Sharpener looked like someone had tried to squeeze him to death. Gohan sighed.  
He knew damn well what had happened to each of them. He also knew that it would be meaningless to try to tell their parents what had happened to each of them.

Finishing her rounds on the half-dead teenagers, Bulma placed them all on gurnies that she had lined up side-by-side. She sighed to herself. She couldn't understand why these teenagers had suddenly began to self-mutilate. She had known each of them for years, either from their adventures in space (okay mainly that was just Gohan), or from years of treating them for common childhood illneses. And now...each of them were here for these horrible injuries.

"Okay, guys." Bulma began, drawing four syringes and a bottle from a shelf, "I think you all need a good nights sleep. I'm going to sedate..."  
That was as far as Bulma got, before all four of them jumped and ran, all of them screaming like nutcases.  
Bulma slammed a button calling for the orderlies.  
Of course all of this commotion brought the parents charging into the room.

In a matter of minutes Goku had restrained a screaming and kicking Gohan, and three orderlies had restrained Erasa and Sharpener. Videl was cornored by a seditive-whielding Bulma and one orderly. Both adults took a step towards Videl, who sank back even further into the cornor. She whimpered as her friends cried to Bulma not to sedate her. Both the orderly and Bulma reached for her at the same time.

All Videl could see was the needle at the end of the syringe. She knew if she went to sleep with that junk in her system, she would have no way to wake up and escape her tormentor. Her breathing picked up. As the two took a step towards her, she took desperate measures. She grabbed a scalpel from the nearest surgery table and stabbed the orderly in the arm.He screamed and pulled his arm towards him.  
Everyone backed off in stunned silence. Videl had never acted this violent towards anyone in this way before.

By this time, the commotion had brought Vegeta from the house, and Piccolo's ears had picked up the commotion, bringing him to Capsule Corp. as well.

Bulma took another step towards Videl, convinced she had to be knocked out so they could safely examine her. That's when Videl began to cry.

Thick tears flowed down Videl's cheeks. She pointed a shaky hand with the scalpal facing Bulma, in an attempt to keep her away from her. She began to choke out a nursery rhyme. But, it wasn't anything like the nursery rhymes of their childhood. It was more a rhyme that children made up on sidewalks about popular figures who showed up in the news.  
"five...six...(sob)...get your crucifix,  
seven...(sob)...eight...gotta stay up late,  
nine...ten(sob)...never...never..."  
Her sobs choked off the rest of the rhyme, but Piccolo finished it for her.

"Never sleep again." His rich, baritone voice finished out the rhyme.

The adults looked around the room at the teenagers. Each one of them was shaking and, if not crying, close to it. Bulma signaled the orderlies to let the three teens go, and Goku released Gohan. Each of the adults looked at one another, the teens, and back to one another over and over again.

"Where did you hear that...that song?" Goku asked hesitantly.

Gohan looked at him from the cornor of his tear-rimmed eyes, shaking his head just enough to be noticed.  
"You wouldn't believe us if we told you."

"Try us." Vegeta said flatly.

Gohan turned his head back towards the group, shaking.

"He wears a dirty brown hat, doesn't he?" Piccolo asked.  
That got the attention of all the teens.  
"Christmas sweater? Razor glove?" Piccolo asked.  
All at once, the four teens began nodding their heads in agreement. The adult's faces all blanched. It was quiet for what seemed like an eternity, until Goku finally spoke up.

"He's finally come back."

* * *

Okay, folks! The story is now officially under way. And yes, I have ripped a few of these scenes from the various _Nightmare on Elm Street_ movies. They are seriously great.  
P.S. Some people have e-mailed me to tell me that Freddy's sweater is green and red, not orange and brown as I have said in previous chapters. My bad! I guess I saw the colors wrong in the darkness of the scenes. Thank you for alerting me to my mistake. :) 

Concerning Erasa's name: I didn't know which version of the name to use. Some say her name is Eliza, some say it is Erasa. For sake of sanity, I'm going with the television version.


End file.
